Thanksgiving Day
Reflection
This is a different Thanksgiving for many of us. It has been a hard year in many ways. We have suffered anxiety, illness and loss. Yet, there is still much to be grateful for because gratitude enables us to live in wonder at the world revealed by our senses, the amazing capacity of our minds, the yearnings of our spirits, the richness of our own giftedness. It is the understanding that we live in this time, in this place, with these people, these problems, but also these blessings. Gratitude is much more than setting aside one day to be thankful. It is a way to experience life, to be constantly surprised, and to believe in the One who is the Source of all. It is the ability to really say “thank you” and to take nothing and no one for granted. Gratitude is the awareness that having come into this world with nothing, we have received everything.
Prayer
Let all creation sing with a grateful voice!
Action
Find time to remember and give thanks. Try to live in the spirit of gratitude.
Suggested Reading
Always give thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:20
O give thanks to the God who is good; for God’s steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 118:28-29
Gratitude is the alleluia to existence, the praise that thunders through the universe as tribute to the ongoing presence of God with us even now.
Joan Chittister
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.
Meister Eckhart
Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life… a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year – and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God.
Ray Stannard Baker
If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.
W. Clement Stone
Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.
Robert Caspar Lintner
Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.
Theodore Roosevelt
Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.
John Milton
Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.
Maya Angelou
Nothing purchased can come close to the renewed sense of gratitude for having family and friends.
Benjamin Franklin
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Terri Guillemets